Title: "The Hidden Monsters: New Windows on the Cosmic Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes" (Video)
Abstract: At the heart of essentially every large galaxy in the Universe lies a supermassive black hole. In the past decade, surveys of the extragalactic sky have made great progress in understanding the cosmic growth of these black holes, as they "eat" surrounding material and radiate as active galactic...
[more]Title: "Kinetic Plasma Turbulence in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas" (Video)
Abstract: Turbulence is a ubiquitous process in space and astrophysical plasmas that serves to mediate the transfer of large-scale motions to small scales at which the turbulence can be dissipated and the plasma heated. The nature of the dissipation and heating ultimately determines the...
[more]Title: "Kinetic Plasma Turbulence: New Insights Into Its Fundamental Nature and Implications for Fusion Energy" (Video)
Abstract: Turbulence is ubiquitous in both space and laboratory plasmas. These plasmas are often hot and/or diffuse, which requires the use of kinetic theory, the description of particle distribution functions in a high-dimensional phase space. ...
[more]Title: New Perspectives on Magnetic Reconnection — From Plasmoid Instability to Self-Generated Turbulence (Video)
Abstract: Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process that allows magnetic field lines to break the frozen-in constraint of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), changing magnetic topology while at the same time converting stored magnetic energy into plasma energy. It is generally...
[more]Title: Neutral Naturalness (Video)
Abstract: I explain the hierarchy problem of the standard model of particle physics, and discuss some of the ideas which have been put forward to resolve it. I then show that a specific class of theories, built around a framework known as neutral naturalness, can help address this problem while remaining consistent with all current experimental tests. I explain that while...
[more]Title: "Magnetic Reconnection in Plasmas" (Video)
Abstract: Magnetic reconnection is the process whereby a change in topology of magnetic field lines allows for a rapid conversion of magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy of the surrounding plasma. This physical process plays a key role in many astrophysical and laboratory contexts, ranging from magnetospheric substorms, solar eruptions, sawtooth...
[more]Title: "Toward Optically Defined Micromechanical Systems" (Video)
Abstract: Mechanical systems are ubiquitous throughout society, from oscillators in timekeeping devices to accelerometers and electronic filters in automobiles and cell phones. They also represent an indispensable set of tools for fundamental science, providing a means of sensing atomic-scale forces and masses or even the minuscule spacetime...
[more]Title: "Effective Field Theory and the Phenomenology of Dark Matter Direct Detection” (Video)
Abstract: Direct detection searches for dark matter have made significant advances in their level of sensitivity and are expected to improve further in the near future. The results of these experiments are often interpreted in a limited context of certain kinds of interactions between dark matter and standard matter...
[more]Title: "Pushing Einstein's Boundaries: Gravitational Approaches to the Challenges of Modern Cosmology" (Video)
Abstract: Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GR) is one of the most successful and well-tested physical theories ever developed. Nevertheless, modern cosmology poses a range of questions, from the smallest scales to the largest, that remain currently unresolved by GR coupled to...
[more]Title: "Quanta Image Sensor: Every Photon Counts" (Video)
Abstract: About 10 years after the invention of the CMOS image sensor at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the early 1990’s, I was asked to write a book chapter on the future of digital still cameras. I proposed a binary, photon-counting image sensor now called the Quanta Image Sensor. It was a sort of wild idea at the time, but somewhat...
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